WASHINGTON, D.C. – After last week’s chaos at the U.S. Capitol and the aftermath that saw Donald Trump stripped of just about every social media outlet that he used to communicate with his supporters, the President stopped briefly to speak with reporters today before embarking on a plane to Alamo, Texas to visit his signature border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
While speaking with the reporters, Trump denied allegations that he sparked an insurrection last week when pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol building while Congress was in the midst of counting the Electoral Votes of President-Elect Joe Biden. Trump had delivered a speech at a rally held before the protestors marched on the Capitol, which many Democrats – who could vote to impeach the President this Wednesday – felt pushed his followers into violence that eventually resulted in six deaths, many injured, and numerous arrests.
However, when asked by reporters about these accusations and his “personal responsibility” in connection to the riots, Trump denied them vigorously, maintaining that his speech last week was “totally appropriate.”
“So if you read my speech, and many people have done it, and I’ve seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television, it’s been analyzed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said, although he did not say “who” had analyzed and deemed it so.
Defenders of the President have pointed out that, during the speech he delivered at the rally last week, Trump did call upon his followers to march upon the Capitol, “peacefully and patriotically.”
Trump also addressed Democratic attempts to impeach him for a second time this week, which he portrayed as “ridiculous” and a continuation of the “witch hunt” that he said he was forced to endure for much of his presidency.
“The impeachment is really a continuation of the greatest witch-hunt in the history of politics. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous. This impeachment is causing tremendous anger and it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing,” he said. “For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country and it’s causing tremendous anger.”
Trump noted that the upcoming impeachment vote – which, if successful, would give him the dubious honor of being the only President ever impeached twice – is causing the tempers of his followers to flare once again.
“I think it’s causing tremendous anger,” he said, but added that, “I want no violence.”
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